CLIL lesson on Spanish History, Culture and Traditions Central Market Valencia´s Central Market has almost 1000 shops and around 1500 people work here every day (that is shop owners, cleaning, delivery services, etc.). According to Wikipedia it is the biggest centre in Europe dedicated to selling fresh products, and one of the most beautiful Markets in the continent and it is the first one that delivers food to costumers´ homes. The architectural style of this building is called Art Nouveau. It was built at the beginning of the 20th century. Does anyone know of other Art Nouveau buildings? (Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sacred Family in Barcelona). We recognise it is an Art Nouveau building because of the materials: metal, glass, decorated tiles and brick. And if we look closely at the motifs that decorate the tiles, the mosaics or the columns, we will see that there are a lot of natural elements such as animals (lizards, dragon flies, etc.) and flowers and leaves that make beautiful curves.
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
CLIL lesson on Spanish History,
Culture and Traditions
Central Market
Valencia´s Central Market has almost 1000 shops and around 1500 people work here
every day (that is shop owners, cleaning, delivery services, etc.). According to
Wikipedia it is the biggest centre in Europe dedicated to selling fresh products, and one
of the most beautiful Markets in the continent and it is the first one that delivers food to
costumers´ homes.
The architectural style of this building is called Art Nouveau. It was built at the
beginning of the 20th century. Does anyone know of other Art Nouveau buildings?
(Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sacred Family in Barcelona). We recognise it is an Art Nouveau
building because of the materials: metal, glass, decorated tiles and brick. And if we look
closely at the motifs that decorate the tiles, the mosaics or the columns, we will see that
there are a lot of natural elements such as animals (lizards, dragon flies, etc.) and
flowers and leaves that make beautiful curves.
Lonja or Silk Market
The Lonja is also called the Silk Market and it was used as an exchange market. It was
built between the 15th and 16th centuries in a late gothic style and it´s now a UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
In the 15th century Europe was going through a big transformation: before, in the
Middle Ages, it had been a feudal, agricultural society, but from the 13th century
onwards it was changing into a more commercial and manufacturing society, a new
social class was appearing: the bourgeoisie, they were bankers, merchants, “factory”
owners, and they needed places like the Lonja to meet and exchange their products,
borrow money, etc..
This market dramatically illustrates the power and wealth of Valencia in the XV
century. Valencia was at the time one of the great Mediterranean mercantile cities. It
was such a powerful city that there were three valencian Popes in Rome during the XV
century, and you have to take into account that at this time Popes were almost always
from Italian families. Before this building, there was another older exchange market
here, but it became too small and a new one had to be built. The first products to be
auction and exchange here were fish, then later on silk and many others. The Lonja is
also called the Silk Market, because the silk industry had a great importance here. Up to
15.000 people worked in Valencia making textiles using silk (does anybody knows
where silk comes from, what animal produces silk?). But in the 15th century the Silk
Market was mainly famous for the big volume of bank operations that were made here.
It was a bank. Merchants, factory owners, anyone who needed money for his business
came here to borrow it from bankers. A lot of these bankers were Jewish at the time (we
will talk later about the religions that cohabited in Spain in medieval times). It was the
valencian bankers who borrow money to Christopher Columbus to do his first trip to
America.
In the Middle Ages gothic cathedrals were being built everywhere in Europe. Do you
know any? (Notre Dame de Paris, Koln cathedral in Germany). There are many gothic
religious buildings, but it is rather difficult to find a gothic building that is not a church,
this is one of the very few examples - an exceptional example - of a non-religious
building in Gothic style in the whole of Europe. Despite that, it shares some
characteristics with the gothic churches: in the outside, there are gargoyles and
decorated windows and doors, inside they have very tall ceilings and beautiful columns.
It is almost like a temple for commercial exchange.
The building has four main parts or bodies: the first one is the court with orange trees,
then there is also a tower that was used as prison for merchants that didn´t pay their
debts. The third part is called the Sea Consulate, it was built in Renaissance style, which
is an art style characteristic of the 15th and 16th centuries. The ceiling is made in painted
wood and decorated with heraldic shields, plants, the zodiac and many other motifs.
The fourth part - and the most impressive - is the hall of Columns, also called the hall of
Contracts. This is the place where all bank transactions were made. This room is
decorated in gothic style. The ceiling of this hall is really beautiful, is made by a set of
vaults supported by 24 columns. Only 8 columns are detached from the walls. Each
column is 11 meters high and it looks like a palm tree with branches that intersect with
other branches.
Valencia´s Cathedral
Outside
The place occupied by the cathedral was originally a roman temple. The temple became
a Visigoth cathedral, but under the Muslim occupation of Spain, it was turned into
a mosque. Muslims occupied Spain during 800 years. Following a long period of wars
between Christians and Muslims, Muslims were expelled from Spain. But it was a
complex time: Muslims and Christians were not always enemies, they lived together for
very long periods of peace, and they formed alliances to fight other Christians or other
Muslims from other parts of the territory. Christians fought sometimes with Muslims
against the Christian king and the other way round is well. Christians were able to live
in Muslim territories, with Muslim people, and they had their own religion, traditions
and authorities and the other way round, Muslims lived with Christians, preserving their
religion, laws, etc. To make things more complex, there was also a big Jewish